Pastor Joe wasn’t sure what to do about the Christmas Eve service. It was always a highlight for the musicians and congregation of his church in their little mountain village. But the electricity had gone out, which meant that not only was there no heat and no lights, but also no power for the organ. They didn’t have a piano, and no one played the accordion. So he consulted with Frank, their organist and choir director. Pastor Joe could play a few things on his guitar, but he only knew three chords. But with Frank’s help they came up with something at the last minute that they could use for the service. It was simple enough for the singers to learn quickly, and which the congregation could pick up easily. Joe wrote the words and Frank wrote a melody that would work with the three guitar chords. And with candles, people could see well enough to sing along. It actually went quite well. When the repairman came later to fix things, they played what they had written to show him how they had managed. He was so impressed by the song and by their ingenuity in coping with the disaster, he copied it down and shared it with others. Soon it was being sung in churches all over every Christmas.
Well, that’s not exactly how “Silent Night” came to be written and sung 202 years ago, but that’s how it would have been told if a similar thing had happened this year (not to mention how the COVID-19 pandemic would have altered the scenario!). Here’s the actual story. It was Christmas Eve, 1818 at St. Nicholas Catholic Church in Oberndorf, a Bavarian village in Austria. The young priest, Father Joseph Mohr (1792-1848), had come to the church the year before. He had written the poem “Stille Nacht” two years earlier in Salzburg where he worked as an assistant priest in the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars. The organ at St. Nicholas church was not functioning and could not be repaired until Karl Mauracher, the organ builder who serviced the instrument, could get there weeks later.
That year a roving band of actors was performing in towns throughout the Austrian Alps. They arrived in time for their scheduled performance in Oberndorf, a play that would re-enact the story of Christ’s birth. Since the organ was out of commission, they presented their Christmas drama in a private home. That put Pastor Mohr in a meditative mood, so instead of walking straight home that night, he took a longer scenic route that led him up over a hill overlooking the village. Looking down on the peaceful snow-covered village, a Christmas-card-like scene, he recalled a poem he had written two years earlier, a poem about the shepherds and the angels who announced the Messiah’s long-awaited birth.
The next day was Christmas Eve and the loss of the organ posed a serious problem for the midnight mass. He needed a carol for that service, a special time of worship which was approaching in just a few hours. That afternoon, Father Mohr walked the three kilometers from his home to the neighboring town of Arnsdorf bei Laufen to visit his friend, Franz Gruber (1787-1863), a school teacher who also served as organist and choir master at St. Nicholas. Mohr brought his poem in hopes that Gruber could compose music for it on such short notice. Together they put together the carol we know and love. They sang it with Mohr’s guitar accompaniment that very evening. Mohr sang tenor and strummed the guitar while Gruber sang bass, with the congregation coming in on the refrain.
The well-known organ builder, Karl Mauraher, arrived in Oberndorf weeks later to fix the organ. When he had completed the repairs, he stepped back to let Gruber test the instrument to see if he was satisfied. Gruber played – guess what? – the simple melody he had written for Mohr’s Christmas poem. Mauracher was deeply impressed, and took copies of the music and words back to his own Alpine village, Kapfing. There, two well-known families of folk singers – the Rainers and the Strassers – heard it. They loved it and decided to include it in their Christmas season repertoire.
Their concerts quickly spread the carol across northern Europe. In 1834, they performed “Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht” for King Frederick William IV of Prussia. He liked it so much, he ordered that it be sung by his cathedral choir every Christmas Eve. Twenty years after it was written, the Rainers brought the song to the United States, singing it in German outside of New York’s Trinity Church. It was in 1859 while in New York City, nearly fifty years after it was first sung in German, that “Silent Night, Holy Night” was translated into English by John Freeman Young (1820-1885), best remembered as a priest at Trinity Church in New York City. Eight years later, that English version was included in Charles Hutchins’ “Sunday School Hymnal.”
Young was born in Pittston, Maine, the son of John Young and Emma Freeman. He was educated at the Maine Wesleyan Seminary and later studied at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, but dropped out after his freshman year. After joining the Episcopal Church, he studied at the Virginia Theological Seminary from which he graduated in 1845. In 1865 he was awarded the Doctor of Sacred Theology degree from Columbia University. Young was first married to Harriett R. Ogden of New York City and then to Mary Stuart Stockton of Florida.
Young was ordained deacon on April 20, 1845, and was appointed to St. John’s Church in Jacksonville, Florida. On January 11, 1846, he was ordained a priest at St. John’s Church in Tallahassee and then became rector of St. John’s Church back in Jacksonville. In December 1847, he moved to Brazoria County, Texas, where he served as a missionary, and then in November 1850 he moved to Livingston, Mississippi. Between 1852 and 1860, he served as rector of Assumption Parish in Napoleonville, Louisiana. 1860 he became assistant rector of the prestigious Trinity Church, Wall Street, in New York City. He was the secretary for the Russo-Greek Committee of the Episcopal General Convention and was an ecumenical envoy to the Russian Orthodox Church. In 1864 he edited the papers of that committee, which encouraged intercommunion of the eastern, English, and American churches.
Young had an early interest in Church architecture. An example is the Chapel of the Cross, Madison, Mississippi, which was constructed in 1848. It is said that he assisted the owner, Margaret Johnstone, in aspects of the design of the chapel. The first Bishop of Mississippi, Bishop William Mercer Green, consecrated the chapel on July 19, 1852. Bishop Green wrote that a debt was owed to the dedicated labor and elegant taste of Rev. Young. He had also overseen the construction of a gothic style church in Napoleonville, Louisiana in 1854, from plans obtained from an eminent New York architect, which was described as “the most beautiful edifice of its kind seen in the Southern or Western country” by Bishop Leonidas Polk, first Bishop of Louisiana.
In 1867, Young was elected as the second bishop of the Episcopal diocese of Florida and was consecrated on July 25, 1867, in Trinity Church, New York by the Presiding Bishop John Henry Hopkins. He retained the post till his death in 1885. He died of pneumonia in New York City, and was buried in the Old City Cemetery in downtown Jacksonville, across from the Confederate section. His headstone has been maintained by local members of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. For several years, greens were placed on Young’s monument in Jacksonville during the Christmas season by a representative of the Silent Night Society of Salzburg, Austria. In later years, while still serving as an active Bishop, he also lectured in Liturgics and Ecclesiastical Music at The University of the South. In 1882-1883 the Department of Liturgics and Ecclesiastical Music was added to the School of Theology, University of the South. Young was named lecturer in that department. He served there as lecturer until his death. Among his publications were “Papers on Liturgical Enrichment” (1883) and “Great Hymns of the Church” (1887). Young died in New York.
Young is best known for his 1859 translation “Silent Night” into English. His English translation is the most frequently sung English text today. It was translated from three of Joseph Mohr’s original six verses and first published in a 16-page pamphlet titled “Carols For Christmas Tide.” The pamphlet also included other carols, like “Earth Today Rejoices,” “Good Christian Men Rejoice,” “Here Is Joy For Every Age,” “Earthly Friends Will Change And Falter,” “Royal Day That Chasest Gloom,” and “Good King Wenceslas.”
For many of us, our happiest memory of Christmas Eve is not just the sight of the Christmas tree at home with wrapped presents piled under its branches. No, it’s the mystery, almost magical, of arriving at church after dinner for the Christmas Eve candlelight service. Scripture lessons were read, from Old Testament prophecies like those in Genesis, Isaiah, and Micah to the New Testament nativity narratives in Matthew and Luke, concluding with verses from the prologue to John’s Gospel about the Word becoming flesh. Carols were sing by the congregation, and we listened with joy to the beautiful choir anthems.
Then, perhaps after a soloist sang “O Holy Night,” while the pastor prayed, all the electric lights were turned out. We opened our eyes to a completely dark room. The pastor reminded us about how dark this world has become because of sin, not only dark in the culture around us, but also dark in our own hearts. In that darkened room, we could only see shadows in black and gray. We could not see any of the Christmas colors of the decorations, or of the Christmas jackets and dress being worn.
Then he began reciting verses about Jesus as the light of the world. He lit the single white candle in the center of the advent wreath, reminding us of the nature of the spiritual light Jesus has brought into the world, and into our lives. At that point, the elders came forward to light their candles from that center white candle. They lit all the candles in the tall candelabras at the front on either side of the communion table, and began moving down the aisles, lighting the candles of the persons sitting at the end of the pews, who then lit the candles of the people next to them.
During that candle-lighting, the choir and organ led us as we all sang quietly and meditatively “the” Christmas song, “Silent Night.” When we finished the four stanzas, and all candles had been lit, all the electric lights had remained off. Gradually the warm golden glow of the candles had been spreading through the room. That’s when the pastor read Jesus’ words about not hiding our lights under a bushel, meaning that we should not keep the light of salvation in Jesus privately to ourselves, but should share it with all those around us out in the world. That’s when he directed each of us to hold up high the lit candles we had been protecting in our laps. What a sight, when the room was suddenly filled with brilliant light! Those of us who grew up with that, will never forget the experience, so closely connecting to “Silent Night.”
Then we departed in silence, row by row, extinguishing our candles as we departed, passing the pastor as we exited as he said to each of us, “Merry Christmas.” We took that silence home with us, a silence of amazement at God’s love given to us in the person of His Son.
Today, the words to “Silent Night” are sung around the world in more than 300 different languages! It is also the most recorded Christmas carol. There have been 733 copyrighted recordings of it since 1978. During a temporary truce on Christmas Eve in 1914, soldiers from opposite sides came out of their trenches on a World War I battlefield to sing the carol simultaneously in French, German, and English.
Here is a link to a brief video clip of that Christmas truce:
While there were originally six stanzas, here are the four most often found in hymnals today. They are so beautifully written, they need hardly any commentary. We should be sure to notice what is obvious when we stop and look, how each stanza begins with the same phrase, “Silent night! Holy night!”
Stanza 1 engages the imagination to focus on the night of Jesus’ birth, describing it as silent, calm, and bright. The attention turns from the night outside to the mother and child inside whatever location that may have been. Once again, it is a trinity of characteristics that are mentioned, a child who was holy, tender, and mild. The refrain is then directed to the baby Jesus, Himself, calling on Him to “sleep in heavenly peace.”
Silent night! Holy night!
All is calm, all is bright
’round yon virgin mother and child.
Holy infant, so tender and mild,
sleep in heavenly peace,
sleep in heavenly peace.
Stanza 2 in contrast, remains closer to the biblical description, itself. We read in Luke about the shepherds and the angels with their message of great joy. It’s the verbs and adjectives that the carol adds which makes this so vivid. Luke told us the shepherds were “sore afraid,” and the carol adds that they were quaking “at the sight.” Luke told us that the glory of the Lord shone around them, but the carol adds that these glories were streaming, and not just from heaven, but heaven “afar.” This time the refrain is their message that “Christ, the Savior is born.”
Silent night! Holy night!
Shepherds quake at the sight!
Glories stream from heaven afar,
heav’nly hosts sing alleluia;
Christ, the Savior, is born!
Christ, the Savior, is born!
Stanza 3 changes from description to directly address the Child by His personal identification as “Son of God.” In language closer to the Gospel of John, the imagery of light is quite prominent. Jesus is said to be “love’s pure light,” with “radiant beams from Thy holy face.” That phrase almost sounds like one of the medieval paintings of Jesus even as a baby, with a round halo surrounding his head. And then to that is added the carol’s reference to this in theological terms as “the dawn of redeeming grace.” Actually, the dawn had come in stages of prophecy and typology throughout the ages of Old Testament history, but this could certainly be said to be the first times that dawn crested the horizon.
Silent night! Holy night!
Son of God, love’s pure light,
radiant beams from Thy holy face,
with the dawn of redeeming grace,
Jesus, Lord, at thy birth,
Jesus, Lord, at thy birth.
Stanza 4 finishes up by addressing the star in the heavens, probably meaning the star that was in the process of guiding the Magi eventually to the place where they presented their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. In the carol, we call on that star to “lend thy light” so that we with the angels may sing our “alleluias to our King,” “Christ, the Savior.”
Silent night! Holy night!
wondrous star, lend thy light;
with the angels let us sing
alleluias to our King;
Christ, the Savior, is born!
Christ, the Savior, is born!
Here is a link to the beautiful anthem “Peace, Peace” which includes the singing of “Silent Night” at the end. This is used in many churches as the conclusion to their Christmas Eve candlelight services.
Just like we all learned the Latin lyrics to “Adeste Fideles,” many of us were also introduced to the German text “Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht.” What follows are the original lyrics (as best I could find them so far), with translations slightly different from those we know best.
Complete Original Lyrics
| 1 | Stille Nacht! Heilige Nacht! Alles schläft; einsam wacht Nur das traute heilige Paar. Holder Knab im lockigten Haar, Schlafe in himmlischer Ruh! Schlafe in himmlischer Ruh! | Silent night! Holy night! All’s asleep, one sole light, Just the faithful and holy pair, Lovely boy-child with curly hair, Sleep in heavenly peace! Sleep in heavenly peace! |
| 2 | Stille Nacht! Heilige Nacht! Gottes Sohn, o wie lacht Lieb´ aus deinem göttlichen Mund, Da schlägt uns die rettende Stund. Jesus in deiner Geburt! Jesus in deiner Geburt! | Silent night! Holy night! God’s Son laughs, o how bright. Love from your holy lips shines clear, As the dawn of salvation draws near, Jesus, Lord, with your birth! Jesus, Lord, with your birth! |
| 3 | Stille Nacht! Heilige Nacht! Die der Welt Heil gebracht, Aus des Himmels goldenen Höhn Uns der Gnaden Fülle läßt sehn: Jesum in Menschengestalt, Jesum in Menschengestalt | Silent night! Holy night! Brought the world peace tonight, From the heavens’ golden height Shows the grace of His holy might Jesus, as man on this earth! Jesus, as man on this earth! |
| 4 | Stille Nacht! Heilige Nacht! Wo sich heut alle Macht Väterlicher Liebe ergoß Und als Bruder huldvoll umschloß Jesus die Völker der Welt, Jesus die Völker der Welt. | Silent night! holy night! Where today all the might Of His fatherly love us graced And then Jesus, as brother embraced. All the peoples on earth! All the peoples on earth! |
| 5 | Stille Nacht! Heilige Nacht! Lange schon uns bedacht, Als der Herr vom Grimme befreit In der Väter urgrauer Zeit Aller Welt Schonung verhieß, Aller Welt Schonung verhieß. | Silent night! Holy night! Long we hoped that He might, As our Lord, free us of wrath, Since times of our fathers He hath Promised to spare all mankind! Promised to spare all mankind! |
| 6 | Stille Nacht! Heilige Nacht! Hirten erst kundgemacht Durch der Engel Alleluja, Tönt es laut bei Ferne und Nah: Jesus der Retter ist da! Jesus der Retter ist da! | Silent night! Holy night! Shepherds first see the sight. Told by angelic Alleluja, Sounding everywhere, both near and far: “Christ the Savior is here!” “Christ the Savior is here!” |